The men's 800 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 25 to 28. Seventy-two athletes from 58 nations competed. The event was won by 0.16 seconds by Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, the first medal for the nation in the event. Wilson Kipketer of Denmark became the 10th man to win a second medal in the 800 metres.
The women's 800 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 20 to 23.
The women's 800 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on 16, 17 and 19 August. The winning margin was 2.45 seconds which as of 2024 is the greatest winning margin in the women's 800 metres at these championships and the only time this event has been won by more than two seconds at these championships.
Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
The Women's 800 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 8–11 August. Mariya Savinova finished the race in first place, but she has since been stripped of the gold medal for doping.
The Women's 800 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on September 1, 2 and 4.
The women's 800 metres at the 2012 European Athletics Championships was held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on 28 and 29 June.
Lynsey Sharp is a former Scottish track and field athlete who competed in the 800 metres. She is the 2012 European champion and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Her personal best is 1:57.69, the seventh fastest time over 800m by a British woman, set in the final of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Melissa Bishop-Nriagu is a Canadian runner who specializes in the 800 metres. She competed at the 2012, 2016 Olympics and 2020 Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2015 World Athletics Championships. Her World Championship medal was a Canadian woman's first-ever medal in the 800 m. Bishop-Nriagu graduated from University of Windsor and was only the third Canadian woman to achieve a time under 2:00 minutes in the 800 m. She is currently the national record holder for this distance.
Francine Niyonsaba is a Burundian runner who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympic medal for Burundi since 1996. Niyonsaba won a silver in the event at the 2017 World Championships.
The women's 800 metres at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium on 15–18 August.
The men's 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 12–15 August at the Olympic Stadium. Fifty-eight athletes from 39 nations competed. The event was won by 0.46 seconds by David Rudisha of Kenya, the fourth man to successfully defend Olympic gold in the 800 metres. Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria took silver, the first medal for the nation in the 800 metres since 2000. The United States had an even longer medal-less streak broken, as Clayton Murphy's bronze was their first since 1992.
Burundi competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
The women's 800 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 26, 27 and 29 August.
Margaret Nyairera Wambui is a Kenyan middle-distance runner specialising in the 800 metres.
The women's 800 metres at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 19 and 20, 2016.
The women's 1500 metres at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 4−5 and 7 August.
The women's 800 metres at the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on 3 and 4 March 2018.
The testosterone regulations in women's athletics are a series of policies first published in 2011 by the IAAF and last updated following a court victory against Caster Semenya in May 2019. The first version of the rules applied to all women with high testosterone, but the current version of the rules only apply to athletes with certain XY disorders of sexual development, and set a 5 nmol/L testosterone limit, which applies only to distances between 400 m and 1 mile (inclusive), other events being unrestricted.
Prudence Tebogo Sekgodiso, also spelled Prudence Sekgodisa, is a South African middle-distance runner specializing in the 800 metres. She was the gold medalist in the 800 m at the 2019 African U18 Championships. She is also a five-time South African Athletics Championships winner in the 1500 m and 800 m.
